The
following is the work of the individual author and does not necessarily
reflect the views or opinions of the Opus Dei Awareness Network,
Inc.

Talking
Points - Obedience in Opus Dei by
Joseph I. B. Gonzales, former numerary, six years

This
selection of talking points explores the implementation of obedience
in Opus Dei. Opus Dei claims that it follows the spirit of the first
Christians, yet an intellectually honest investigation of the spirit
of Opus Dei shows that numerary life is really an adaptation of
religious spirituality and reflects many aspects of religious life
in early twentieth-century Spain.

Religious
obedience genuinely derives from early monasticism in the fourth
century A.D. The vow of obedience does not occur among lay Christians
before then.

Implementation
of the tradition of religious obedience among numeraries raises
the legitimate question of how such a contradiction can be understood
to be consistent with the reality of lay life. It also brings up
the problem of lack of informed consent among persons who join with
the expectation that they will remain lay people, with all the attendant
rights and obligations that are normally sacrificed only in religious
life.

The
absolutist character of obedience in Opus Dei, even to the denigration
of reason, also casts doubt upon its authentic identification with
the will of God. Moreover, the widespread habit of dissimulation
in Opus Dei implies that the worthy practice of obedience may in
various instances be undermined by falsehood and destructive motives,
or at the very least, inadequately informed. Such questionable features
of the organization have led to accusations from various quarters
of deception, Machiavellianism, and fascism. Indeed, the traumatic
experience of former numeraries casts doubt on the assumption that
obedience implemented in such an environment truly derives from
the mandate of Jesus.

"The
bishops have been pastorally irresponsible in not paying more attention
to the claims of parents who feel their children have been seduced
into joining something that is not good for their spiritual health.
That's not to say everybody, but there's enough of this sort of
thing that it really bears investigation. And just as they owe an
obligation in the very difficult case of someone who claims to have
been molested by a priest--protecting the priest and the victim
as equal members of the church--I think they have to pay pastoral
attention to these people regardless of what kind of canonical status
the organization has."--Kenneth Woodward, from "Opus
Dei in the United States," by Father James Martin, S.J.,
America magazine, February 25, 1995.

"Critics
contend that numerary life is anything but lay, particularly in
what they see as its replication of religious life, with emphasis
on "commitments" (Opus Dei does not use the term "vows"),
life in common, a daily order and, at least for some of the men,
eventual ordination. Many of those in authority are clerics--the
director of their national headquarters in New Rochelle, N.Y., is
a monsignor; their prelate was recently ordained a bishop."--Father
James Martin, S. J. "Opus
Dei in the United States,"America magazine, February
25, 1995.

"The
best sign of our filiation to the Father will be our dedication,
our fidelity to our spirit we know that there we vibrate with
the Father's heart and are united to his intentions when we are
very faithful to the spirit of the Work. 'What you have learned
and heard and seen in me these things practice. And the God of peace
will be with you.'"--Cronica (1971)

"The
effect upon the organization's members trained in a singularly devout,
enclosed, and tightly controlled society can be devastating when
it is suggested that there is some form of symbiosis between the
will of God and the will of the founder whom they are taught to
venerate. It puts them under enormous psychological pressure, shielded
as they are from any questioning by people outside their group."--Michael
Walsh, Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Secret Society Struggling
for Power within the Roman Catholic Church, Harper San Francisco
(1992)

"Opus
Dei spokesmen said such stories were tales of embittered failures,
but there were too many former Opus Dei members with similar experiences
to dismiss such charges as unfounded."--Penny Lernoux, People
of God, Penguin Books(1989)

"Opus
Dei silences critical minds. Monsignor Escriva used to say, 'I don't
want great brains in the Work, because they turn into swelled heads.
Average intelligences, if they are docile and faithful, are very
effective.' An engineer, banker, or scientist tends to have fewer
problems with superiors in the Work than humanists, philosophers,
or theologians, who are almost always frustrated within the Work.
As soon as someone--who may even be a priest--is outstanding in
the field of philosophy or theology, Opus Dei will almost certainly
end by silencing him He frequently ends up by leaving the institution
or becomes the patient of a psychiatrist. Opus Dei does not let
you think nor engage in speculation."--Maria del Carmen Tapia,
Beyond the Threshold, Continuum(1998)

"One
of the troubles about citing anything by Escriva is that he was
a master of double talk and dual standards. He said one thing for
the outside world and another for his children. Even more telling,
he said one thing for some of his children, while maintaining something
else for his staff officers, the inscribed numeraries. He also had
two layers of publications, one for the general public, The Way,
for example, and another reserved for elect numeraries. Strict orders
were issued that copies of Cronica...be kept under lock and
key in each centre."--Robert Hutchinson, Their Kingdom Come,
St. Martin's Press(1996)

"Opus
Dei is a devious, antidemocratic, reactionary, semi-fascist institution,
desperately hungry for absolute power in the church. It ought to
be forced either to come out into the open or be suppressed."--Andrew
Greeley, Priest, Author, Sociologist, in Penny Lernoux's, People
of God, Penguin Books(1989)

"I
wish someone would ask: and what is so original in all this? Well,
frankly, not much. Of course, a reader geographically far removed
from the Iberian world, culturally unfamiliar with the history of
Spain in the twentieth century, or religiously disconnected from
traditional Roman Catholicism, might find very original the personality,
disposition, and behavior patterns of a person who doubtless appears
to him as exceedingly exotic. On the other hand, to a reader who
is Catholic, Spanish, and sixty years old, the figure of Msgr. Escriva
would seem much less original, precisely because the context is
not so exotic to him."--Joan Estruch, Saints and Schemers,
Replica Books(1995)

And
from Their Kingdom Come, by Robert Hutchinson, St. Martin's
Press(1996):

…The
Way was more accurately a handbook of authoritarian clericalism.

Professor
Jose Maria Castillo went even further. He claimed it lacked discernment,
a serious charge, for in theological terms discernment is a loaded
word. “Discernment is the expression of the true cult of Christians;…,”
explained Castillo, a Jesuit professor of theology at the University
of Granada.

“If
a book which claims to be a programme of spiritual life says nothing
about Christian discernment, one can say quite surely that it has
only a superficial veneer of Evangelical spirit. One can, in fact,
say that, deep down, the book is not Christian,” Castillo
wrote in an article that engendered Opus Dei’s wrath.

But
what exactly is discernment? It has to do with determining the authenticity
of mystical experiences…Ignatius of Loyola’s concern
for discernment constitutes an essential part of his Spiritual Exercises.
Ignatius was so absorbed by the problem that he conceived a set
of rules for the discernment of spirits that he applied to his own
spiritual life. Perhaps because of his concern for discernment,
Ignatius never claimed that God created the Society of Jesus.

The
same concern for discernment, Castillo claimed, was not reflected
in The Way. In fact, The Way tolerates neither doubt nor criticism.
It affirmed that true Christians must be disciplined and obedient
to a spiritual director….

Discernment
denied, Escriva’s lay children would be unlikely to attain
spiritual maturity. They are told that if they wish to achieve Christian
perfection they must give up their inner self to a superior….In
other words, there is no recourse to one’s spiritual discernment,
only to one’s Spiritual Director.

What
Escriva seemed to be saying is that obedience to the Father, through
each member’s spiritual director, offers the keys to the gates
of Heaven….But this guidance is not attributable to the Holy
Spirit. It is attributable to a man, the Father, the only person
who can insure that one’s sanctity will be achieved.

With
the elimination of discernment, the Gospel is empty, faith alienated
and the individual demeaned….Father Castillo concluded: “The
Way leads inevitably to the alienation of the individual, and to
an ill-conceived complicity with “the world” which Jesus
rejected….